


Stars on the tip of Your Tongue

by NebulaWrites



Series: A Sky Full of Stars [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Deidara becomes Naruto's adopted brother, Deidara has a reasonable fear of the Sharingan, Deidara is their blond baby and they will protect him, Deidara never stole Iwa's forbidden jutsu, Deidara used to be for a lack of better words.. with Itachi and Hidan occasionally, F/F, F/M, He was framed, Hidan is a dick, Hidan is an ass, I won't put all the tags I want to because they'll never end, Implied Non-Con, Itachi abuses the power of his Sharingan, Itachi missed Obito in the Uchiha Massacre, Kakashi still got the Sharingan, Kisame and Konan stop them before anything can be done ever, Kisame helps Deidara run from Akatsuki, Konan and Kisame want Deidara to be safe, M/M, Minato and Kushina live, Multi, Naru adores him, Obito was saved from Madara, Rin survived, Sasori gives no shits about Deidara, Sasuke is crushing and Naruto is obilvious, because there's no Kyuubi attack, so that's where the whole touchiness stems from, someone help Sakura and Ino get together already, they both don't know 'no', they don't wanna let go :v, well now there's two tags about Hidan's asshole-ness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-03-07 13:35:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13435803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NebulaWrites/pseuds/NebulaWrites
Summary: He wanted nothing to do withmostof these people. He never has, that was proven by the way he had declined the invitation to join them. But they couldn’t-wouldn’ttake no for an answer, and before Deidara knew it he was forced into the Akatsuki.Seventeen years old, not even officially an adult, and a S-ranked missing nin because of a crime he didn’t commit. He wasn’t eventhere.





	1. Chapter 1

He wanted nothing to do with _most_ of these people. He never has, that was proven by the way he had declined the invitation to join them. But they couldn’t- _wouldn’t_ take no for an answer, and before Deidara knew it he was forced into the Akatsuki.

Seventeen years old, not even officially an adult, and a S-ranked missing nin because of a crime he didn’t commit. He wasn’t even _there_. The blond bomber had been sent on a mission in the Land of Lightning, and upon returning to the Land of Stone he had been attacked.

Onoki himself had joined in the attack, their goal was to catch Deidara but they had only succeeded in chasing him away. 

Chased away from his home at the age of sixteen, and forced into the Akatsuki the next year. It wasn’t too terribly bad, after all Sasori could be _worse_ but he also could be _better_. Deidara could do without Hidan and Itachi, though, as the both of them didn’t quite understand boundaries and what was socially acceptable.

At that moment the blue-eyed male was glaring evilly at Hidan as the immortal pressed closer and continued to drag his hand up Deidara’s thigh. “I said,” he seethes, tensing as sharp teeth bite at his neck and draw blood. “I’m not in the mood, so bother someone _else_.” 

The Jashinist makes a noise of deep disagreement as he sucks on the wound he’d just made on the blond’s neck. From closer to the fire there’s an objecting grunt, and Deidara puffs out a breath of relief as Kisame hauls Hidan away by his collar. “If he doesn’t want it, don’t force yourself on him.” The swordsman nearly snaps as he threw Hidan down next to Kakuzu, who didn’t even bother to look from the bingo book in his hand. The Iwa nin waved his hand in thanks as Kisame’s sharp gaze is turned on him to look check that he was alright.

The blue-skinned ninja simply nods in return, falling back into his spot between Itachi and the bounty hunter. Sasori idly raised his gaze from where he was repairing one of his puppets, brown gaze flitting over the other criminals before back to the wooden lump in his hands.

Deidara scowls at the redhead’s back, crossing his arms and slumping back into the tree behind him with a harrumph. Puppets were creepy and were in no way anything close to art, but that wasn’t what rubbed him the wrong way.

His safety was in Sasori’s hands, the puppeteer was supposed to make sure nothing happened to the blond and yet the older male didn’t even so much as bother to react to what had just occurred. It always put him off when he was deemed less important over chunks of wood and metal.

Kisame, as always, notices the bomber’s inner turmoil and offers an apologetically sympathetic grin that shows just a few too many teeth. The Iwa rouge returned the smile with his own bland one before he huddled in his cloak once more. Out of all the other members of the Akatsuki, he liked Kisame and Konan the most.

They were different from the others, both of them protective over their youngest member in their own little ways. And while Kisame wouldn’t stand up to Itachi, the Kiri nin had no qualms putting Hidan in his place and violently if need be. Konan had insisted Deidara share her room, convincing their leader quite easily and the blond appreciated it.

The woman would never make a move on him, after all she was in love with someone already and she was aware of Deidara’s preferences. It was reassuring to have at the least two people willing to take care of him if he couldn’t do it himself, and he would truthfully always be grateful. His pride would keep Deidara from actually _saying_ that, but his actions borderline screamed his gratitude regardless.

A yelp escapes him as another cloak is thrown at him, hitting the blond directly in the face as Kisame barked out in laughter. With a nonverbal noise of complaint, he uncovers his head and wraps himself up in the extra cloak. “Thanks, hm,” he murmurs, glad for the extra warmth because it was still rather frigid despite it being spring at last.

“Don’t mention it.”

With the added heat, it really didn’t take long for him to nod off and he willingly fell into the darkness of slumber knowing at the very least Kisame would watch over him. Usually he didn’t sleep on missions, but it was a really nice change that Deidara didn’t mind at all.

 

The sun hadn’t even risen when they had started moving again, and if there was one thing Deidara hated it was getting up before the sunrise. Grumbling pointedly, he rubs at his eyes again before shaking himself and yawning as Kisame tugs him to the side. “Next time I’ll let you walk into the tree and _laugh_ about it.” The shark comments, grinning widely at the blond’s nonverbal whine before he picked his pace up again to return to Itachi’s side.

Ducking his head further into the deep collar of his cloak, Deidara’s pout is hidden from the others and it quickly turns into a grimace as Kakuzu hits Hidan.

The immortal stumbles, his head knocking against a large oak with a ‘ _thunk_ ’ even the blond could hear despite the distance between them. The display instantly reminds him as to _why_ he didn’t stick around Kakuzu too much; the bounty hunter had a temper quicker than his own and was _violent_.

As the sun rises and they continue moving, slowly Deidara comes to realize something.

He’s in the back, where none of them can see him. If he was able to do it right he could _get away_.

His breath hitches at the thought because he’s been looking for a chance to run away from these lunatics ever since he was forced into the organization. The bomber slows down subtly, waiting until there’s about five meters between himself and Kisame before he acts.

One hand flashes up to the stolen hitai-ate he’d been wearing while the other starts to undo the cloak. Deidara refused to go wandering around in the Land of Fire with anything that could link him to the Akatsuki or Iwagakure, so it was best to dump these _now_.

Kisame stops, turning to look over his shoulder and Deidara freezes, muscles tensing as the Kiri nin studies him. With a vaguely sad smile that wished him luck, Kisame turned once again and continued on.

The blue-eyed male nearly cries at the simple yet so meaningful action, and he was going to thank Kisame properly if they saw each other again.

Swallowing thickly, the Iwa rouge yanks off the heavy blank and red cloak, dropping both that and the headband to the ground. With a steadying breath because this was _it_ , this was him _escaping_ , he turns and runs as fast as he can.

 

It had taken them nearly two full days before they realized Deidara had deflected, and nearly half of another day to find his path. And the fact that they had felt sour and resigned in Kisame’s gut, he supposes that he was lucky they hadn’t realized that he let Deidara go.

Hopefully they wouldn’t.

But then again hopefully the blond bomber would be able to get away even if Kakuzu, Hidan and Itachi were tracking him. He and Sasori were going back to the hideout, so there wasn’t anything more the Kiri nin could do for the Iwa rogue.

 

Deidara dives underneath a holly bush in a desperate attempt for at least some type of cover and not long after heavy footsteps land a mere six inches from his face. “Where the fuck did he go?” Hidan snarls, stomping his foot and hacking at the bush with his scythe briefly before Kakuzu and Itachi land a few paces behind him. “Did you seriously lose him, Hidan?” the two question almost at the same time and the Jashinist instantly takes offence from the sound of it.

Slowly, oh so slowly, the blond begins to maneuver his way backwards to both get away and get more cover. He could hear a waterfall nearby somewhere, and if he could get it between _him_ and _them_ it’d be great. But of course one false move has Itachi spotting him and Deidara gives a startled shriek as the Uchiha sets the bush alight with a Katon jutsu.

Cursing savagely and trying to pat out the flame that caught his shirt, he scrambles out of his hiding spot to bolt in what may be blind terror.

Okay. It was definitely blind terror.

Duck, roll, hit and Deidara can’t fight back a snarl of victory as Hidan howls in pain and clutches his now broken nose. Kakuzu looks so, _so_ angry it was nearly enough to stop him in his tracks, but this was his only chance at freedom and he _wasn’t_ going to lose it.

He doesn’t truly register the cliff until _after_ he’s run off it, and Deidara can’t manage to scream like he wants to when there’s nothing underneath his feet. Three points of searing agony erupt against his side and partly against his back, making him tear his gaze back to stare at Hidan’s scythe in horror.

Shit.

It’s a decision made in a split second, but he figures it’s better than letting Hidan get his blood and therefore the ability to _kill_ him. Sneering at the watching Jashinist, Deidara drew a kunai and swung it down against the cord with all his strength. But it’s a hollow victory to hear the metallic screech, furious shout and feel the sudden lurching fall again because underneath him is a stretch of rapids.

So he saved himself from being killed by Hidan, but now he’s gonna drown-

Itachi leans over the edge of the cliff and their eyes meet for one fleeting moment that’s entirely enough to throw Deidara into a genjutsu.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boy was his team interesting, now that he thought about it, and he laughed softly at that fact as he took off his mask. He didn’t need it on if he was hiding in a damn cliff-face cave after all. Not like anyone-
> 
> A blur of matte blue and vibrate blond flashes past the cave and Obito sucks in a breath of surprise, leaning out of his hiding spot because _what_?!
> 
> It takes two seconds to understand the situation, and the heartbeat he does he dives after the very unconscious and injured shinobi.

Rin and Kakashi were going to _kill him_. Not even going into Kamui would save him from that unfaltering truth because Kakashi could get into Kamui too if he wanted. With a groan, Obito stretches his leg out and carefully ties a loop of rope around his thigh to stop the blood flow.

He wasn’t going to bleed to death, thank you very much. Knowing Rin, she would go to Orochimaru for help with bringing Obito back to life just so she could throttle the Uchiha for bleeding to death. Kakashi and Kushina would do it too.

Boy was his team interesting, now that he thought about it, and he laughed softly at that fact as he took off his mask. He didn’t need it on if he was hiding in a damn cliff-face cave after all. Not like anyone-

A blur of matte blue and vibrate blond flashes past the cave and Obito sucks in a breath of surprise, leaning out of his hiding spot because _what_?!

It takes two seconds to understand the situation, and the heartbeat he does he dives after the very unconscious and injured shinobi. In half a second he’s caught the other in his chain and Obito holds his breath just before they both go crashing into the thrashing river below them.

He couldn’t get them in Kamui without dragging a decent portion of the river with them, so he curses mentally as he yanks-

Someone grabs the blond and drags Obito out of the river too, it takes literally two seconds to recognize Itachi and when he does Obito stiffens. He can’t win against Itachi especially when the other Uchiha has _backup_.

The largest of the three narrows his eyes at Obito, assessing, and the unmasked ANBU returning the favor with a grimace. Hopefully they wouldn’t recognize him as black ops.

Hopefully he wouldn’t be recognized at _all_ , but even he was willing to admit that might be pushing it.

Obito has two seconds to notice muscles tensing before he bares his teeth, grabbing the blond and diving back under the water just as a wave of fire spreads through the little area. Twenty feet downstream, he hauls them out of the river and domes the unconscious shinobi in wood before rushing back to give Kakashi some help.

 

When he was put under Itachi’s genjutsu, Deidara hadn’t expected to wake up and least of all wake up in a hospital. Blinking at the plain ceiling, he tried to think around the pounding in his head or at least hear through the ringing in his ears. Where even was he?

It takes him a while to actually gather his thoughts enough to sit up, and when he does he yelps at the child suddenly at his bedside.

Wide blue eyes blink at him as a voice raises suddenly, “Knock it off, Naruto, he nearly died so give him some room!”

The blond boy makes a face as he whips around, making a very mature _‘mlehm’_ sound as he – to Deidara’s guess – sticks his tongue out before darting for the halls, calling back as he runs, “You’re rude when you’re working, Rin!”

The Iwa rogue blinks slowly, frozen with his arms propping his upper body off the mattress as a woman walks around the curtain to smile at him. “Don’t mind him, his sensei tends to encourage them to come bother me while he’s off doing who knows what. How are you feeling?” she asks, her gray-brown eyes shining kindly as she arranges the pillows behind Deidara’s back so he could lean back.

“Dazed,” he croaks without thinking – always a habit of his when it came to brunette women or doctors. “Where am I?”

Instead of the doctor responding it’s a new voice, warm and bright. “Konohagakure. One of my students found you, and then another one found him trying to help you.” A blond man rounds the same curtain the brunette had, placing his hand on the doctor’s shoulder as he smiles at Deidara. “Seeing as you were attacked by a rogue from here, it was even more of our duty to help.”

Deidara could feel himself tensing at the sight of this man, hackles rising as he tried to seem calm. He wasn’t stupid; the Hokage’s robes were quite easy to notice with the pure white and eye-catching red. Onoki had described them to him once, as well as this man.

The Yondaime Hokage or Konoha’s Yellow Flash was hardly a man that could be mistaken for anyone else.

“Are you two done bothering my patient? He needs to rest, Itachi’s Tsukuyomi has it’s effects on one’s body.”

Both the Hokage and the doctor flinch, looking at each other sheepishly before turning to face the _fourth_ new person. “Sorry, Tsunade, I’ll finish checking on Obito and we’ll leave!” the brunette says to the woman – Tsunade, one of the three Sannin, because yes Deidara knows about them too – and Tsunade rolls her eyes in response.

“I don’t need to even be in here, ya know!” an indignant voice calls from the other side of the room and the petite woman scowls, disappearing so quickly that the Yondaime laughs awkwardly. “Ow! Damn it, Rin, stop hitting me I’m in a hospital!” the voice yelps loudly.

“Rin, don’t kill him because no matter what you think, I doubt Orochimaru would help you bring him back for the sole reason of you killing him again.” Tsunade warns, pushing Namikaze out of the way as she settles on the edge of Deidara’s bed.

He flinches away as she reaches up, expecting… something, anything but what he does get. Hard eyes go softer and a painted mouth curves in a comforting smile as the blonde lowers her hand again. “I won’t hurt you, I just want to check for infections. I’ve been gone this entire week you’ve been here, and I don’t trust those fighting chuckleheads to have checked for anything like that.”

“ _Hey_!”

Tsunade rolled her eyes at the shout, raising her hand again and quirking a brow at Deidara as it was limned in green chakra. Slowly, she reached out and this time he didn’t move away, eyes tracking her hand the entire time. “What’s your name?” hums the famous medic, her touch gentle where she places it on his chest.

Instantly Deidara frowns, his thoughts already having jumped to ‘I’m a criminal, if I tell her my name they’ll throw me in jail’ and he looks away to avoid the question. There’s a minute of silence between them – awkward and heavy and overly cautious – before the kunoichi gives a heavy sigh and levels an unimpressed look at him. Confused, the blond bomber raised a brow and lets his tipped head do the speaking for him as practiced hands maneuver him into laying.

“Alright, don’t tell me yet. But let me say this, we will protect you here if you’re being chased by the Akatsuki.” Tsunade says seriously, holding his gaze for a long moment before she lightly pats his shoulder. “Get some more rest, I’ll have Rin get you some food as well when she comes back to feed Obito.” A glancing peck on his forehead and she’s gone, leaving Deidara blinking in response – wide-eyed and so confused because how could these people say that when they’d turn on him instantly upon learning who he was?

This entire encounter has made his headache worse, so he turns and buries his face into the pillow to block out the morning sun as he reaches for slumber.

 

Kushina tips her head as she watches the blond in the bed, there are bags under his eyes that spoke of too many sleepless nights and bruises, scars and scratches that hint towards rough handling. “He’s a kid,” she murmurs, turning to Minato and her hold unconsciously tightening on Naruto’s shoulders. “Why would the Akatsuki be after him?”

Rin looks troubled, her brows furrowing as she and Kakashi support Obito between them. “I don’t know, but it was definitely Itachi that was after him. That man from Kusa as well, the odd religious jerk. The third bastard I didn’t recognize from anything, but his headband aligned him as a Taki rogue.” Obito says darkly, his eye narrowed as he stared at the patch of gauze on the kid’s neck. “If they didn’t want him to join them, I really don’t like what the other option would be.”

With a noise of agreement, Kushina turns back to study the shinobi again even as Kakashi makes a sound of disgust. “But would Itachi really do something like that?” questions the Copy Ninja. “ _That_ isn’t like him.”

“Was it like him when he killed the rest of my clan? Do I need to remind you it’s only him, Sasuke and I that’s still alive?” Obito counters, sighing heavily and falling silent for a moment. When Kushina looks back he’s shaking his head and when he looks up his eyes are darker than usual. “Tsunade told me that he flinched away from her when she reached for him. And that he wouldn’t say his name.” He confesses.

Naruto shifts, looking up at his mother and chiming, “He looks like Dad an’ me. Is he family?”

Minato laughs softly, patting Naruto’s head gently. “I think I would remember family, Naruto, I don’t think so.” He replies, and the boy looks back at the blond on the bed with a quiet ‘ _oh_ ’.

“Then can we make him family?”

Everyone freezes at that, looking at Naruto for a long while before carefully not responding. After a minute Rin breaks the silence. “Let’s put Obito back in bed, and leave both of them to sleep.” She murmurs, reluctantly allowing Kakashi to take Obito without her help before she motions for Naruto to run along.

Together, the four adults leave the room and walk in silence until they’re about halfway to Minato and Kushina’s home. “We might want to keep a guard on him,” Kakashi says, making everyone look up. “Itachi and Kiri’s Hoshigaki rogue came for Orochimaru once and infiltrated the village to do so. They might try the same for him.” Minato nods, his rare grim face making everyone share glances.

“You’re right, I think I might have Genma guard him. He can switch off with you until Obito is better, and then you three and Rin can take turns.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got this done in one day and I have to say I'm impressed with myself. I'm convinced this is awful, but then at the moment everything is awful so I'll let you guys be the judges.


	3. Chapter 3

The next time Deidara wakes with that blond kid in his face, there are two others with him. Startled, he shoots upright and tries to move away from them, nearly slipping off the bed in the entire process. “See?” the blond asks excitedly, pointing at the Iwa nin. “Doesn’t he look like Dad? Like me?”

The girl – pink-haired and green-eyed – makes a noise of awe, one of her hands petting a lock of Deidara’s long hair. “He does, but his hair is softer,” she says innocently, looking up at him with entreating eyes. “How do you get your hair so soft?” Both of her companions give her an incredulous look at that, and the man that rounds the curtain clears his throat pointedly.

“Brats, go find Kakashi and bug him. He’s should be teaching you, not letting you go around bothering people in the hospital when he wants to read that stupid book of his.” He says, despite his words he’s smiling and Deidara studies the way the man’s scarred face makes the smile a little crooked on the right. The girl instantly nods and drags the two boys with her as she runs off; when they’re all gone the man turns to the bomber. “There are a few good things about Sakura, one of those things is her ability to drag Naruto and Sasuke off without getting killed for it.”

He can feel the way the blood drains from his face at the final name, never failing to remember the relation that Sasuke Uchiha has with Itachi. The man looks concerned, settling on the foot of the bed and tilting his head. “Do you need me to call Tsunade or Rin? You went really pale.”

“I’m fine,” Deidara blurts, not wanting the questions that Tsunade relentlessly has peppered him with over the entire time he's been there. “I- just- Sasuke?”

The dark-haired man nods, frowning and running his hand through his spiky black hair. “Yeah, so I take it you knew Itachi?” he questions and the Iwa rogue bites his tongue to keep from replying. They stare at each other in silence, unmoving and unblinking before the man breaks into another smile. “Never mind about that, then, I suppose I should introduce myself. I’m-.”

“Obito!” Rin’s voice screeches and the apparent Obito flinches, his shoulders instantly inching up towards his ears as he ducks his head.

“Yeah, I’m Obito. Rin, I haven’t run off!” Obito says, standing and nearly crashing into Rin as she rounds the curtain. Deidara slowly sinks further down into his bed, bringing the blankets up to hide underneath them as the brunette gives Obito a murderous glare.

If there was one thing he’d learned from the last two weeks, it was to not make the hospital staff angry. Especially Rin and Tsunade. “You are a thorn in my side, Obito, especially when you’re in the hospital. If you weren’t getting out today I would strangle you.” Rin says in a grumble, pushing Obito to the other side of the curtain before returning to Deidara with a flourish. “Stop hiding, just because I’m mad at him doesn’t mean I’m mad at you.”

The blond stares at her blandly, slowly sitting up again and blandly lets her check his vitals just like every morning so far. “So how are you feeling today? Still keeping your name a secret?” the brunette asks, a hint of teasing in her tone and Deidara wrinkled his nose in response.

“My name…” he mumbles, glancing at her again before sighing. “Deidara. I’m certainly already tired of waking up with a blond kid in my face, that’s for sure.”

Rin blinks at him, evidently surprised, before she smiles. “Well, Deidara, you did most of your healing while you were unconscious. If you’re not still feeling lightheaded then you’re free to leave the hospital as well. Minato-sensei has already set up a place for you to stay, and you’ll be welcome to wander around the village as you please.” This entirely catches him off guard, and he gapes at her – unable to help it in face of such a kind offer.

He splutters briefly, reaching for a response or even a demand as to why but Obito rounds the curtain again, this time dressed in Konoha’s uniform pants and a long sleeved turtle neck shirt. “I’ll be around to check up on you from time to time, in case you need anything.” He reports cheerfully, tucking his hands into his pockets as he smiles at Deidara. “If you’re ready to go now, I can give you a tour if you’d like.”

Running his hand through his hair, Deidara studies both of the Konoha nin for a couple minutes in utter silence. “What if I have a place to be?” he asks, because he’s a teenager and isn’t above being troublesome when he felt like it. Rin quirks a brow as Obito gives him an unimpressed glance.

“Do you?” the spiky-haired male returns and instantly the rogue looks away, wrinkling his nose when it makes Obito laugh.

“Maa,” someone drawls – that’s definitely amusement in their voice, Deidara can tell – as a pile of clothing is dropped on Obito’s head. “Minato-sensei said be helpful, Obito, not annoying.” Before now he’d never seen anyone so obviously _young_ have _silver hair_ , but as ever Konoha in general seemed to want to show him a lot of things he hadn’t before.

Obito makes an aggravated noise, blindly lashing out at the silver-haired shinobi and successfully knocking off the man’s hitai-ate. “Damn it, Kakashi, you’re the one being annoying!” he snarls, pulling the clothes off his head and carefully setting them on the foot of Deidara’s bed. Deidara watched them blandly as Obito lunged for Kakashi, efficiently getting bored after two minutes and turning to raise a brow at Rin.

“What are the clothes for?” the blond asks over the loud exclamations from the other two and Rin hums as she moves them closer.

“Your clothes were unsalvageable, so unless you want to walk around in hospital garments the whole time…” she trails off and giggles as Deidara pulled a face, the thought of wandering around looking like he belonged in the hospital wasn’t a pleasant one. “These aren’t much, but they’re comfortable. I’ll chase these dorks away so you can change.” Comments Rin, already shooing Kakashi and Obito around the curtain before promptly following after flashing him a smile.

Deidara listens as the door gives a telltale squeak and Obito’s voice grows quieter as presumably Rin chases the two men off down the hall. The clothes are practically in his lap, all but calling to him as he carefully picks up the shirt.

It’s long and gray and he knows right away he’ll need to keep the sleeves rolled up if he wants to do anything properly, but the fabric is soft and the weight suggests it will be warm.

The Iwa rogue slowly put shirt down, feeling just a bit too overwhelmed by… everything. He knew why they were doing this; he heard Rin and Tsunade talking about it when they thought he was asleep. While they weren’t completely wrong, they hadn’t been completely _right_ either, and so this felt like taking advantage of them.

By the time he actually manages to dress it’s been twenty minutes, Deidara stares down at the clothes for a long moment before ducking down to pick up the hitai-ate still on the floor. Might as well pick it up if Rin and Obito see Kakashi frequently, he could just leave it with one of them. He’s just stepping outside of the hospital when a ball narrowly misses his head. “Hey, watch it!” the blond snaps – habit really since there had been a lot of things thrown around in Akatsuki – and the genin that comes charging after the ball merely laughs.

“Sorry ‘bout that, Naruto’s aim sucks. Oi, Shika, catch!” the boy crows cheerfully as he throws the ball back in the direction he’d run from. “Later.” He adds, waving before chasing the sound of laughing kids and the puppy bounding around his feet yips gleefully before following its owner. The Iwa nin stares after the kid in blank surprise before shaking himself out of his daze and carefully beginning to head towards the rest of the village.

“Bakashi, I swear to god I will gut you!”

“Can’t gut me if you can’t catch me!”

“Then let me catch you, you moron!”

“This is an everyday thing for them,” a new yet kind voice snickers, and Deidara nearly jumps out of his skin as he tears his gaze away from the two idiotic men he’d started to stare at. There’s a woman beside him, redheaded and grinning widely as she watches Kakashi and Obito jumping around on the roofs like complete dorks. “Obito never means anything he says, of course, he and Kakashi are kind of like countermeasures for one another.” She continues, turning to give him a gentler smile.

Deidara shifts his weight to the side, biting his cheek as he glances at the two men again. “I guess I’m more used to my village,” mumbles the rogue and the woman laughs, lightly patting his shoulder as she picks up the basket by her feet.

Straightening, she gives him another grin. “We’re always used to something more familiar, but I hope you’ll find Konoha a nice place.” With that she began to walk away as Rin trotted up to Deidara’s side, giggling softly.

“I see you met Kushina,” Rin hums, gently pulling him to the side as Kakashi and Obito rush off through the place the blond had been standing moments before. “I also saw you ran into Naruto’s friend Kiba, fair warning most of the genin are rather rowdy so watch yourself.” Slowly he weasels his arm from her grip and holds up the hitai-ate he’d picked up, glancing after Kakashi with a sigh.

She smiles, thanking him as she takes it from his hand before offering, “Would you like to go get some tea while Obito is busy? My treat for being an easier patient than anyone could ever dream of being.”

Thirty minutes later Deidara is seated in a teahouse across from Rin, timidly nibbling on some dango as the brunette doctor prattles on about… something. He’d gotten distracted and now couldn’t follow the conversation for anything. “More tea?” asks the kind old lady who owns the teahouse in her teetering voice and he glances at Rin with a raised brow – mouth too full to speak.

It gets him a laugh from both women before Rin agrees with a request for three more plates of dango. “Why three more?” Deidara questions the literal second he can – not that he’s objecting to more dango, this place has the best he’s ever had – and she beams at him, chirping a quick “You’ll see”.

Sure enough he got his answer as maybe ten minutes later a woman with violet hair all but bounces up to the table. She looks at the untouched dango and Rin laughs, nudging the plate closer as she says, “Go ahead, Anko, I got it for you.”

Anko grins – wide and sheepish – as she takes the dango from the plate, crowing “You’re the best girlfriend ever, Rin.” before running off with a wave. Deidara doesn’t even question it, already quite done with questioning anything that happens in this village. The old lady is laughing softly as she clears the plates from their table, commenting something about Rin’s ability with the ladies.

“Certainly more skilled than those teammates of yours,” she states with full confidence and there’s an offended squawk from the entrance. Deidara drags his gaze around to see Obito with a hand clamped over his eyes and a bright red flush on his face. Kakashi is leaning casually in the doorway looking highly amused before his gaze switches from the dark-haired man to Deidara.

In his mind it’s like staring a starving wolf dead in the eye and Deidara could feel every muscle in his body tensing as the hairs on the back of his neck begin to stand on end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As ever I'm indifferent on my work so I'll leave this chapter's quality up for you guys to decide (o.o)/ also I still have no idea what to rate this fic, suggestions welcome though I'll probably just wait until it's finished to rate it!
> 
> Thanks for reading this update!


	4. Chapter 4

From the corner of his eye he could see Rin speaking – her expression that of startled concern – but for the life of him Deidara couldn’t hear her. Every breath he took felt too shallow and like he wasn’t getting any oxygen at all, time meant nothing in his mind for those – most likely – moments.

A blur of blond, orange and blue suddenly slammed full force into Kakashi’s side and the Jounin goes down with the most dramatic look on his mostly hidden face. Kushina appears shortly after, laughing and Deidara finally snaps his thoughts back into place. “Deidara, are you all right?” stresses Rin, who had stood up at some point and was leaning over the table with her hand over his.

“Is something wrong?”

The rogue clenches his hands into fists and forces himself to shake his head as Minato stops beside Obito. “No,” he lies; ignoring the unconvinced glare boring into his skull as Rin slowly sits back down. “Everything’s fine.” The Hokage tilts his head while Kushina helps Kakashi up off the floor, her laughs aimed at both the blond child and Kakashi in equal measure.

Rin seems to remember the hitai-ate at this point and she tosses it at her teammate. Deidara watches him for half a second before sliding from his seat, thanking Rin for the tea and dango as he does. “I think I need some rest,” he states, turning to Obito with a tilt of his head. “Could someone-?”

“Why don’t Naruto and I show you where you’ll be staying?” Kushina suddenly suggests, clapping Obito over the shoulder and laughing. “Obito’s probably tired, and he’s still got to think about his brat that’s probably waiting at home?”

Eye blowing wide, Obito curses and bolts for the door while calling over his shoulder, “I’ll show you around the village tomorrow, I need to figure something out for dinner or literally everyone will gut me!”

The redhead turns to grin at Deidara before waving for him to follow as she smoothes a hand through the blond boy’s hair – Naruto apparently. “I can probably find it if it’s too much of a bother, hm.” The Iwa nin says sheepishly, stepping around Minato and very carefully not looking at Kakashi as Kushina steers Naruto out of the teahouse.

“Not at all,” she reassures. “It’s not far from our place, and I need to start dinner, ya know?” Naruto suddenly looks up at Deidara and smiles, seemingly trying to subtly weasel from Kushina’s hold.

“Mom said I should apologize for scaring you, and for nearly hitting you with the ball.”

This takes the older blond by surprise to the point of he just gapes at the child for a moment. Kushina scuffs Naruto over the head and lets go of his shoulders, “Of course you should it was rude.”

The genin flinches slightly, his grin rather hangdog as he apologizes and waves to the girl with pink hair from that morning. There’s a blonde with her – longhaired and with eyes that were clear blue – and from Kushina’s greeting he gathers that she must be Ino. Sakura, of course, he remembered her name from the comment Obito made that morning.

“Who are _you_?” Ino asks, her eyes startlingly sharp as she looks him over and Deidara narrows his eyes at her in a small challenge. “Naruto, do you have an older brother you never told us about?”

Sakura and Kushina laugh while Deidara frowns in confusion when Naruto all but starts dancing in place. “No, I’m not Naruto’s brother,” the Iwa rogue explains shortly. “I’m not from here, hm.”

“Why do you do that?” all three children demand, startling him so much with their unexpected unison that he jumps. Oh this was going to be a trying walk.

 

A few hours later, after a meal that Kushina insisted he join them for, Deidara is sitting on the bed to the apartment Minato was paying for him to stay in. He couldn’t sleep and he wasn’t entirely sure why. Maybe it had to do with the ANBU lurking outside his window. He should’ve expected something like this; they would’ve been suspicious with him hiding his name.

He doubted the ANBU was there to assassinate him, and even if that were the reason for the black ops then they would find that it wouldn’t be an easy task. Being in Akatsuki made Deidara a bit… jumpy. He would wake quickly enough to avoid any attacks.

 

Obito sighs slightly to himself, rubbing at his eye as a yawn tore its way from his throat. “Deidara completely froze up, nothing I was saying seemed to really reach him!” Rin stressed as she continues pacing around the room, the light in her eyes slightly wild and familiar enough for both of her teammates to know not to try stopping her. “As soon as he seemed to come back to reality he wanted to leave, can you see why I’m worried?”

From across the room Kushina chimes in, “I understand that you’re worried, ya know? But how can we help if we don’t know what made him freeze up?”

“He was being chased by Itachi, correct?”

Obito jumps at the voice, spluttering and falling back in his chair as Orochimaru closes the door to the Hokage’s office silently. “That’s right, have you heard everything then, Orochimaru?” Minato asks as the Sannin whisks over to the blond’s side with eerie grace.

“Nohara is _loud_ when distressed, even without my hearing I would’ve heard it. If he froze up when Kakashi showed up without his hitai-ate that would mean the Sharingan was active. Given what you and Tsunade have told me, it wouldn’t be illogical to assume that the Sharingan frightens the boy.” Says Orochimaru precisely.

As he stands, Obito shares a glance with Kakashi before slowly speaking up. “You said that his name was familiar to you,” he begins cautiously, hoping that the reason the name had been familiar to him wasn’t what Minato had been thinking. “Did you find anything?”

Sharp golden eyes lock onto him, unblinking and assessing before Orochimaru turns his gaze away. “I will tell you if it becomes a necessity. I wish to speak with him in the morning, if you will spare me the time?” Minato murmurs an agreement, eyes narrowing as Orochimaru nods and leaves with a flourish.

“Really Obito?” Rin hisses and Obito flinches - momentarily confused - before he makes a face and heads for the window.

“Shut up, don’t bring it up! I need to get home, Sasuke will freak if he finds that I’m not home. Bakashi, are you going to replace Genma or should I leave a clone home?” he snaps over his shoulder, hand on the window sill in preparation to vault out of it and the Uchiha does just that when Kakashi agrees to take Genma’s place. With a huff, Obito leaps from the Hokage tower and starts to head for the Uchiha compound, gritting his teeth.

Orochimaru doesn’t avoid answering things unless it has a possibility of being bad. Meaning there was probably something bad about Deidara, even though he was all but a kid. He doesn’t even realize he’s made up his mind until he’s home and rummaging around for his bingo book. It may be a year or two off, but something told him it wouldn’t matter.

“Obito..?” Sasuke yawns from the doorway, making Obito freeze and look up in surprise. “What are you looking for?”

Maybe he should've been quieter…

Obito sighs and straightens, shoving a few shirts off his bed and a book or two before he grins. “Oh, just a book. I didn’t mean to wake you, Sasuke. Head back to bed, you have a mission in the morning and that means I need to tag along to drag Kakashi out of bed.”

Sasuke wrinkles his nose at that, muttering about lazy senseis and stupid teammates as he turns to leave and Obito can’t help but grin.

“Yeah, but that stupid teammate is only stupid because he won’t notice that you’re ass over teakettle for-.” He breaks off with a grunt as he lurches backwards to avoid a face full of kunai and shuriken. Sasuke huffs, his face redder than the tomatoes he loves so much as he whips around to run off. Obito chuckles shaking his head as he slowly studies the mess he’d made of his room. If he starts looking again Sasuke would get huffy and insist on helping, so that was rather out of the question.

“Oh well,” he mutters to himself, falling onto his bed with a sigh.

 

Being approached while still trying to properly wake up was _not_ in his plans for the morning. Deidara blinks blearily at the two men; eyes narrowing as they slowly come into focus. “I’m borderline your dad,” the big man with white hair complains as Kakashi stares up at him in a picture perfect representation of unimpressed. “You should be more respectful! Ugh, you’re no help.”

“I’m being perfectly helpful.” Kakashi retorts cheerfully, his visible eye crinkled in what was most likely a grin. “Morning! Kushina wanted me to come drag you off for breakfast!” Deidara blinks at Kakashi slowly, not quite as uncomfortable as yesterday but… knowing that this man had a Sharingan wasn’t making it easy and it probably never would get easier. The silver-haired Jounin’s companion looks aggravated before the expression melts away to warm welcome as he turns to the blond.

The Iwa nin hunkers into himself, biting the inside of his cheek as he looked between the two men. He’s saved from having to answer as someone in a pale kimono sweeps over and promptly hits the two of them. “Hatake, your genin are waiting for you because you have a _mission_ in case you’ve forgotten. Jiraiya, the Hokage is looking for you and Tsunade was too the last time I saw her.”

It never occurred to Deidara even in his wildest dreams that the descriptions of Orochimaru, the snake Sannin, could’ve ever been quite literal. Skin porcelain white, hair midnight black and eyes a sharp gold, Orochimaru stared up challengingly at the two light-haired men – seemingly completely impervious to the fact that he could be tucked under both of their chins with ease. “Maa,” Kakashi drawls, starting to make his retreat with his hands in the air in surrender. “I guess I can’t keep my cute students waiting any longer. Mind getting Deidara to Minato-sensei’s for me? You know how Kushina is.” Jiraiya stares after Kakashi as the Copy ninja turns and bolts a small distance before disappearing with a shunshin.

“He was such a cute kid, don’t you remember, Orochi?” the toad Sage complains as he looks back at Orochimaru – who meets his gaze with a flat stare. “You liked him when he was a little brat too, don’t deny it. I’ll go find Minato, don’t scare the kid, bastard.”

Orochimaru turns his back to the white-haired man to step closer to Deidara. “Why is there an ANBU watching me?” Deidara blurts – annoyed, paranoid and exhausted in equal measures – and doesn’t even care that he really shouldn’t have mentioned that he knew he was being watched. Golden snake eyes blink in surprise, and Orochimaru tips his head to the side.

“Not because you’re a rogue, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

The blond bomber sucks in a sharp breath and recoils like he’d been struck, looking the Sannin over and half expecting the man to go for an attack. Instead all he gets is a smirk – completely emotionless but a smirk nonetheless. “The ANBU is stationed to protect you, child, nothing more.” He states, offering his hand to help Deidara off the rock he was sitting on. “And as far as I’m aware, I would be the only one aware of your status.”

“How do I know you’re not lying?” retorts the Iwa rogue, hesitantly taking Orochimaru’s hand and letting himself be tugged to his feet. “I’m not stupid, hm.”

“No, but you are easily paranoid.” Orochimaru rolls his eyes.

Before he could snap out a scathing remark there’s a bright call from down the street as the Sannin drops the blond’s hand. “Deidara! Kushina wants you to join us for breakfast!” Rin waves as she slows from her run, smiling brightly between Orochimaru and Deidara before tilting her head. “What do you say?”

With a slight grumble, Deidara steps around the brunette to start heading in the direction of the Uzumaki home, “Alright, alright, I’ll come along to breakfast.”

 

“The boy,” Orochimaru says the second he steps into the Hokage’s office, dipping his head in greeting to Tsunade and Jiraiya. “He is a rogue from Iwa, a direct pupil from the Tsuchikage. S-ranked and has the Explosion Release.”

Minato blinks in surprise, exchanging looks with the three Sannin before sighing and dragging his hands through his hair. “I had hoped that wasn’t the case…”

“There’s something else.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unless I post something new or update the drabbles this will be the only thing for the day. Sorry about that :b as ever thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

“Something else?” Minato repeats, sharing a wide-eyed glance with Jiraiya and Orochimaru nods – looking entirely confident.

“He was made a rogue for supposedly stealing one of Iwa’s kinjutsu,” Orochimaru huffs, immediately narrowing his eyes right back at Tsunade and Jiraiya as they glare at him. “I went through my connections to get as much information as I could about the kinjutsu and Deidara in general. There are multiple things that don’t add up.”

 

It really felt like he was intruding. Everyone was clearly close with one another and then there was him – all but thrown in the middle of this like an unwanted stone.

Poking blandly at the eggs on his plate, Deidara watched silently as Anko and Obito tried to garrote each other with ninja wire while Kushina and Rin laughed at them. He doesn’t even have to think in order to catch the kunai that comes hurtling at his face, and he studies the blade as Obito’s chair is knocked over. “Be careful, Anko, I don’t want to have to treat Deidara for those poisons of yours.” Rin sighs as Deidara carelessly drops the kunai in the middle of the table, glancing up to find Kushina watching him.

“Is something wrong?” she asks and the rogue ducks his head, stuffing another portion of eggs into his mouth as he shakes his head. “Deidara…” the redhead sighs heavily and automatically he looks up again to see Kushina’s eyebrows are scrunched together as a frown tugs her lips downward. “Something’s bothering you. Want to tell me what it is.”

It’s not a question, Deidara knows even as he swallows and glances towards the window. “Nothing?”

“Deidara.”

He slides down lower in his chair, stopping only when he’s eyelevel with the table and he watches as Anko flops back into her seat next to Rin. Both Rin and Obito have joined in on watching him – he can all but feel their eyes – and Deidara sighs, “You don’t have to invite me to eat with you guys, it’s-.”

“You’re not intruding, if that’s what you’re thinking.” Obito interrupts as he inclines his head, his singular black eye bright while his fingers tug at the loose eye patch covering his left eye. “If both Naruto and Kushina have taken a liking to you, there’s no way you would be intruding on anything.” Deidara assumes that from the man’s tone the fact was something he learned personally.

Mumbling under his breath, he slides from his chair and doesn’t quite meet anyone’s gaze as he heads for the door. “Thanks for the food,” Deidara says just before stepping out, dipping his head to the four of them as he closes the door behind him. From inside he could hear someone heave a sigh but he doesn’t stick around, deciding to wander around the village in lack of anything else to do.

Next thing he knows he’s lounging on one of the four stone faces on the mountainside, propped up on his elbows as he stares pointlessly up at the sky. Clouds had long since rolled in to block out the sky but the rogue knew they weren’t heavy enough for rain, though still nice to look at regardless. Here above the village it was quiet. Quiet and unpopulated in a way that was strangely close to comforting – probably because he was used to only one or two people being around at a time in Akatsuki.

However the ANBU was still annoying.

Deidara was doing his best to ignore the ANBU but he really just couldn’t, so it’s a poorly made decision – one made purely out of spite coming from a hotheaded teenager – to push to his feet and leap head first off the edge. The choked splutter the ANBU makes is very loud and it makes the Iwa nin snort with amusement as he fell.

This jump is different, he tells himself closing his eyes and breathing deeply – well as deeply as he could with the air rushing past. No one chasing him with the intent to kill, no scythe stabbing into him to throw him off balance and no reason why this jump wasn’t under his control.

He opens his eyes with just enough time to flip around so he would land on his feet and skid down the roof. The blond doesn’t even pause, simply throwing himself off the roof and pushing out his chakra at the right time to make it so he dives into soft sand and disappears down into the earth.

 

“I lost him!” Genma hisses as he appears in Obito’s living room and the Uchiha startles right off his couch at the sudden disruption.

He had only gotten home… a while ago. No one could blame him for not knowing, he’s only just woken-. “You _what_?!” Obito shrieks, scrambling up off the floor to stare at Genma in absolute astonishment, “How did you lose him, he’s a kid! You’re _ANBU_!”

“Rank means nothing when he literally _dives into the ground_!”

“That makes no sense! Oh gods, Rin is going to kill us!”

“She won’t kill us if she doesn’t find out! How are you more worried about _Rin_? What about _Kushina_?!”

Obito feels the blood drain from his face as he wobbles slightly, sitting down hard on the couch. “Oh Kami save us.”

 

Part of him thinks it was far too easy to lose that ANBU but Deidara really didn’t mind either way. Mumbling to himself as he continues to knead the clay he’d gotten from a woman who’d insisted they would never get rid of it, the rogue absently dips his hand into the bowl of water next to him as a voice comes from behind him, “What are you doing?”

“Sweet _Sage_ ,” Deidara yelps, whipping his head around so fast he hears his neck pop. “Don’t sneak up on people!”

The brunette genin simply blinks at him, her brown eyes shining in amusement as she settles next to him, peering at his sculpture. “What are you doing?” she repeats, reaching out to peel off a small bit of clay from one of the untouched packages. 

A little dubiously, he watches her begin to squish it between her fingers, staring right back at him as she tips her head to the side. Half of him wanted to ask her if she was ever taught to not approach strangers, the other half wanted to give her some sort of scathing response. Eventually he settles for neither and simply continues to work on smoothing away the cracks. “I’m sculpting,” Deidara snaps when the girl insists on glaring at the side of his head for over three minutes. “I’m an artist, I make sculptures and I’ve done it since I was a kid.” This makes the girl hum happily, grabbing another pinch of clay as she watches him dip his hand again. “Try adding some water. It makes the clay less stiff, what are you even doing out here?” he mutters, inching the bowl closer to the brunette.

“I came out here to train,” she replies while dipping two of her fingers into the water. “Sensei tells me it’s better to train here since it’s far enough from the village so I don’t have to worry about civilian kids being out here. I like it, by the way, you’re really good.”

The blond makes a vague noise of gratitude as he lifts their topic of conversation into the air, turning it from side to side in search of imperfections. “Back in my old village I used to be able to sell them…”

“You’re not from here? But you look just like Naruto and his dad!”

Deidara scoffs, deciding the proportions were all off before he crushes the bird between his hands. “I’m from the Land of Earth,” he grits out as he roughly pulls the clay in half. “Kid, haven’t your parents told you to not talk to stra-.”

“Deidara!” Naruto’s quickly familiar voice gives him all of two seconds for warning before Naruto all but falls over him. The Iwa rogue grimaces as Naruto’s face smashes into the untouched clay – completely oblivious to the fact that one foot nails Deidara in the chin and the other one nearly hits the girl square in the nose. Sakura and Sasuke step around them in order to help their teammate up with identical looks of longsuffering. “What are you doing? Is that art? Are you an artist? What can you make? Do you draw?” the younger blond asks in a rush after apologizing for hitting Deidara, his blue eyes shining brightly just like every other time Deidara has seen him.

Before he knew it another group of genin and two boys had joined them – out of them he recognized Ino and that was it, though it didn’t take long for them to introduce themselves. Boy they liked to ask if he was Naruto’s brother. “Hey, what do you think about art?” Tenten asks suddenly, glowering slightly at Lee as he – for the fifth time in the two minutes he’s been there – challenges Neji to a fight. The former Akatsuki member sighs as he collects a new bit of clay to quickly shape into a small bird. In order to buy himself a moment, he mutters a quiet request for time to think as he cups the bird with his hands and starts to gently work his chakra into it.

“Art is fleeting,” he says eventually, opening his hands to let his creation come to life and fly into the air. “It’s the beauty of that single, brief moment of explosion.” This gets him a few odd looks from the genin before their attention turns to the clay bird again. Deidara can’t help but smirk, bringing his hands together in a rather familiar hand sign as he let’s his chakra crest.

“Art is an _explosion_!”

 

“What do you mean you still haven’t found him?”

Kisame hopes that his flinch isn’t _too_ obvious but when Pain uses that tone, no one could quite blame him. Next to him Itachi doesn’t even blink, simply holding the self-proclaimed god’s gaze evenly. “We haven’t found him yet. Meaning either he is in Konoha or has been sent back to Iwa.” Monotones the Uchiha and he doesn’t seem to notice the half glare he gets for the tone. Pain grumbles something under his breath before looking between Itachi and Konan.

“Itachi and Zetsu will head for Iwa to look for Deidara there. Konan, you go with Kisame to Konoha. Bring him back here, though dead or alive I don’t much care.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When will I get a decent update schedule? Who knows! For now it's just me updating whenever I finish the chapter, though I hope to change that. I also hope to start having a chapter in reserve for every chapter being posted. Wish me luck on that! As ever, thank you for reading this update!
> 
> Hey, I have a Tumblr now! I made it out of a request from a friend so that people can see details I never really go into. Feel free to stop by if you want to, ask box is open and all that jazz! https://nebulawritesao3.tumblr.com/ See ya there if you choose to stop by!


	6. Chapter 6

Stretching languidly, Deidara lets out a sigh of contentment even as the genin start arguing about… something he hadn’t been bothered to catch. He flips the kunai – one he had snatched from Tenten as she tried to fling at Lee – in his hand and tilts his head when Ino flushes a light shade of red as Sakura leans up into her face challengingly. Mildly, he wonders if every one of these kids were so bad at facing their crushes or if it was just Sasuke and Ino.

A hand grabbing his shoulder makes him startle, striking back with the kunai in the blind instinct of a criminal fearing sudden touch. He doesn’t even register lashing out with his free hand until his knuckles ache and Obito is knocked on his ass, clutching his nose. “For the love of the gods, what the _fuck_ is wrong with you people and not announcing yourself before touching someone?!” Deidara snarls – firmly ignoring the way it was really more of a shriek – as he rubs his hand while Obito blinks at him.

“Sorry,” the man croaks, wiping blood onto his pants and accepting the cloth thrown at him by an amused looking Sasuke. “But I was thirty seconds from Rin realizing you ducked your tail and she would have garroted you, me and Genma.”

Feeling his eye twitch, Deidara turned away from Obito to haul himself to his feet, gathering his clay and putting it back into the bag. “Deidara!” Naruto exclaims as he flings himself in front of the about to flee Iwa rogue, arms outstretched and expression pleading. “Come get ramen with me and Mom!”

“You shouldn’t invite me if you haven’t gotten per-.”

“I never mind when Naruto invites someone, why don’t you come along?” Kushina interrupts as she seemingly appears out of nowhere, grin already in place as she claps Deidara over the shoulder. “Plus,” she continues in a whisper. “It would mean a few more hours without an ANBU following you.” That was probably what sold it in the end, even if both of them dragged him along regardless of his snapped insistence of the action being unnecessary.

 

“We know about your status as a criminal of S-rank,” Minato says precisely and Deidara feels his heart drop in fright. After getting ramen with Naruto and Kushina, the woman had insisted that they stop by the Hokage’s office and suddenly Deidara understood why instinct had told him to not come here.

There’s an ANBU in the shadows, Rin is next to Obito, Kushina and Naruto – all of them looking varying degrees of horrified and angry. Orochimaru is standing just to the side of the Hokage’s chair, eyes sharp and expression blank even as the young blond shoots him a glare. No one moves – not even Naruto, who was looking at him in veiled horror – and automatically this makes the rogue tense, checking the positions of everyone lest someone moves. “Not going to say anything?” the Hokage asks, quirking an eyebrow and bending forward slightly in order to rest his clasped hands in front of his mouth.

His mind takes it as a warning and Deidara snarls, jumping backwards with his hand grasping blindly behind him for the doorknob. The ANBU acts so quickly that he hardly even gets the chance to brace himself before he’s slammed bodily into the door, a bracer covered arm locked in front of his throat. Instinct makes him swing his arm around and the mask is sent flying as Kushina snaps at Minato – what she says he doesn’t bother actually hearing. Kakashi’s eyes narrow at Deidara, Sharingan spinning and making cold dread settle in the pit of his stomach in the process.

“This isn’t a fight or trial,” Orochimaru snaps and Deidara can just see the Sannin step around the desk from the corner of his eye. “Hatake let him go. Yondaime, don’t act like you’re here to prosecute him!”

Despite Orochimaru’s order, Kakashi doesn’t budge until Obito steps over and bullies his way between them. The messy-haired shinobi glares at his friend over his shoulder before apologetically looking at the blond bomber. “Orochimaru was told to gather information on you since your name sounded familiar to Minato-sensei.” He states backing away and lightly ushering for Deidara to sit, immediately giving up when he doesn’t do anything more than narrow his eyes. “If you can’t count on Orochimaru being overly-thorough, there’s no one you can count on to be. We know, Deidara, we _know_.”

“What?” he croaks blinking as Obito laughs a little. Not quite able to believe him, he glances at Rin – probably the only one he trusts enough to believe in that room – and the doctor smiles widely stepping forward and placing her hand on his shoulder. After a quick glance at her hand – a precautionary habit that he won’t be rid of any time soon – he meets her gaze.

“Kind of hard to steal something in Earth country when you’re in Lightning country, wouldn’t you say?” she hums, bending down to pick up the ANBU mask at their feet and her eyes go wide when she looks at him again.

“Hey,” Kushina murmurs, stepping around Naruto and placing her hands on Deidara’s cheeks, thumbs swiping away the tears there. Deidara sucks in a sharp breath and opens the door, forcing his way past both women to escape into the hall and bolt keeping his head low. He ignores the startled exclamations from Ino and Sakura as he narrowly moves around them, stumbling over himself and knocking into a man. A quick glance up at said man has him wondering if he’d run into Lee’s father before he shakes himself and straightens up.

“Sorry,” mutters Deidara, calling up his chakra for a shunshin that takes him directly outside – bypassing the next few floors of building and granting a better chance at escaping any pursuers. Well… apparently not one, but Obito just walks along next to him silently with his arms tucked behind his head. The silence… surprisingly wasn’t at all awkward even as the blond takes the occasional stuttered breath or wipes away his tears.

It’s a little confusing to be guided – not _forced_ even if Deidara was sure others could have seen it that way – to a… house. Worn-down wasn’t the best way to describe it because it wasn’t to that point yet, but it was clear the house was lived in. “Tea? I find it helps the throat and stuffiness.” The black-haired man offers as he pats the head of a black cat that’s on a shelf just inside the doorway.

“Obito, where’ve you been?” Sasuke’s voice shouts from the hall Deidara’s just walking by and the Iwa bomber jumps at the sound, nearly tripping over a large cat that charges across his path. “Tora, don’t get under foot!” the genin scolds the cat, wandering down the hall to follow Deidara and Obito into the kitchen as Obito starts rambling on about… something that flew straight over Deidara’s head.

The scarred man continues to ramble for about as long as it took to make the tea before he finally stops and levels a stern look at Sasuke. “Go find Shishi, she has mats again and the lady from the teahouse was complaining about it. Han’ya needs a brushing too, but he’s asleep right now so just brush out Shishi.” Immediately Sasuke scowls, glaring at Obito even as the Jounin places the tea onto the table Deidara has sort of just meandered to.

“Shishi is _yours_ , why do I have to always deal with her mats?” Sasuke complains, tellingly turning and stepping outside though the open door before closing it behind him. Obito very maturely blows a raspberry after the boy while gracelessly plopping himself down into a chair. After a minute the older shinobi gives him a surprisingly bland look as he pushes the teacup closer. Deidara scowls and looks at the man with narrowed eyes, brushing the cup to the side before determinedly looking out the window.

“Why’d you come after me?” the blond grumbled, partly watching Obito from the corner of his eye. None of this seemed quite right, and a bit suspicious to him, what did they get from any of this? Did they plan on making him lower his guard? What would be surprising is if one of them hadn’t thought of befriending him in hopes of having a bargaining chip with Iwa.

“No one should be alone if they’re upset, and no one should be made to believe that there’s no hope for someone finding out the truth.”

 

One long, mildly awkward conversation later, Obito offers to walk him back to his apartment, and Deidara reluctantly agrees. “So what, are you going to be following me around now instead of that ANBU?” he asks – _accuses_ – and the man laughs, playing with his eye patch.

“Kushina suggested it since you didn’t seem to like the ANBU,” cheerfully admits Obito before he raises his hand into the air in greeting. “Hey kiddo, where’s that slack off sensei of yours?”

Naruto immediately faces them, his face lighting up like daybreak when he sees Deidara. “Guy-sensei dragged him off somewhere.” The boy reports running up next to Deidara and latching onto his left arm like an overgrown leech. “I’ve decided, you’re family now!”

“ _What_?” the Iwa rogue splutters, looking at Obito in a desperate explanation only to find the messy-haired Jounin doubling over with laughter. There’s an exasperated sigh from behind Naruto shortly before Kushina places her hands on her son’s shoulders.

Minato looks somewhere between amused and longsuffering, saying, “Naruto, we’ve talked about this. Deidara most likely already has a family.” to which Naruto makes a whining noise as he clings harder, looking up at the teen with wide-puppy eyes. Deidara catches the majority of the next things that are hurriedly said between the Uzumaki-Namikaze family, and really he has a hard time believing it.

Obito still laughing really wasn’t helping either.

“Do you have a family, Deidara, do you?” the look on Naruto’s face was one Deidara already was familiar with – usually it was his expression when he wasn’t going to give up on something.

“Naruto-.” Minato begins.

“No,” the blond bomber admits, smiling wryly at the others when they all fall silent. “I actually don’t. The only child of two shinobi, orphaned when I was two.” Naruto’s eyes go even wider when his voice quivers, and he squeezes his arm even more – to the point of where it felt like the blood flow was being cut off.

“Don’t be sad, we’re your family now. If you want.” Deidara can’t help but rest his free hand on Naruto’s head at that, mussing up the boy’s hair. If he’s learned anything from being around the two Uzumaki, it has to have been that arguing with them was rather pointless.

But…

While having a ‘family’ did sound nice, he wasn’t so ready to just up and trust them. Maybe he would eventually.

 

Kushina smiles a little at the sight before her, Naruto and Deidara are curled up together on the couch where Deidara had sprawled out after dinner. “They do really look like they could be brothers, don’t you agree, Minato?” she whispers, pulling a light blanket over the two and carefully relieving Deidara of the hitai-ate digging into his cheek. The teen snuffles slightly, flinging his free hand out from under the blanket to rub at his cheek, blinking at Kushina before he apparently shrugs it off and goes back to sleep.

Sharing a glance with Minato, they giggle together for a moment before Minato walks over and looks at the two from over the back of the couch. “Orphaned when he was two?” her husband mutters, sighing as he pushes upright. “It’s upsetting how easy it is to see he’s hurt. I hope Naruto at least can do something.”

“I trust him, he’s our son after all.” Hums Kushina while brushing her fingers lightly through Deidara’s hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... It does seem like I've fallen into monthly updates, but I swear that's not my intention. I'd much rather have it be weekly updates... Ah well. I hope you enjoyed the new chapter! As ever, thank you for reading!


	7. Chapter 7

“I think we need to get inside.”

Kisame immediately snaps his head up at Konan’s words, giving her a skeptical look, “I don’t think you’ll be able to get me in there without being seen, and Pain would be mad if I let you infiltrate on your own.” The woman glares at him slightly, crossing her arms, and tapping her foot lightly against the giant paper bird she’d made in mimicry of one of Deidara’s creations.

“So you’re saying you want to head back without completing the mission? All we need to do is confirm that he _is_ here at first, then we can just wait him out.” She says matter-of-factly as the bird dives downwards again, landing just outside of what should be the sensory barrier around the village. Kisame shrugs, not willing to fight with her simply because Konan was just as scary as Pain when she needed to be. He leaps off the paper bird just before its form splits apart into the many pieces of paper it had been made of.

“I’d suggest a civilian disguise, unless you can find something around here that’ll make you look like a merchant.”

The Akatsuki’s second in command turns away, muttering something under her breath as she begins to walk. “I’ll meet you back here,” she calls. Kisame doesn’t bother replying, knowing that she knew he’d heard, and he settles under a tree to wait.

 

Pressing himself against the oak he’d climbed into, he peers at the ground below just in time to see flashes of black, green, orange, blue and blond run underneath him. With a huff, he turns, propels himself in the opposite direction, and uses his chakra to keep himself in the trees. Honestly this was a headache and a half (the half being the pint-sized ball of energy), but it wasn’t impossible to keep from being noticed by anyone. It was to be expected for things to turn out this way, and he was only partly bothered by it.

To be entirely blunt that ‘partly bothered’ turned to ‘completely bothered’ in a split-second as a kunai whizzed past his face. He yelps, leaping backwards just before a flurry of pointy things obliterates the branch where he’d just been. A genin appears on the tree’s trunk, gaze dark and chakra building around him. The subtle flicker of his gaze is the only warning before there’s a war cry from below, and both of them have to fling themselves out of their trees as the trunks creak and groan as they are upheaved. “Shit!” he hisses as he lands on the forest floor, lowering himself into a ready stance as the two genin apparently choose to join forces.

“He’s this way!” the girl calls, voice loud and echoing just enough through the trees that it clearly reaches the two that he had passed. With a whimper of complaint, he calls the first shot and leaps for the genin, knocking the wind out of the boy with a precise hit to his sternum. Immediately his friend takes offense, moving for her own attack only to squawk as he flings himself over her head. “He’s running, guys, come on!”

He snorts; quickly clambering back up into the trees and adding a touch of chakra to boost his next jump just enough to clear a small amount of ten trees. As his goal comes into sight, he grins – wild and victorious – before it’s replaced by a certain feeling of startled _horror_ when he spots a familiar person standing just inside his destination. Deidara immediately tries to backtrack, but only succeeds in slipping off his branch, and cursing as his back slams into it just before he lands gracelessly on the path below. Wheezing, he pushes upright and quickly dives for cover as the woman – undeniably Konan – turns around.

All in a group, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Obito appear in front of him – all looking curious and startled. “What happened, Deidara?” Naruto asks, clearly concerned as the teen continues to wheeze, struggling greatly – and painfully – for breath. Obito peers around the tree as Sakura offers to check if something was wrong with Deidara using her medical ninjutsu. He’s not able to deny her offer, so soon green limned hands press gently against his chest, and Deidara scuffles Naruto’s hair in an attempt to rid the boy of his frown.

“Obito,” Sakura says slowly, looking at the messy-haired Jounin. “His ribs are broken, I haven’t learned how to heal bones yet. We need to get Tsunade or Rin.”

Obito immediately stoops down to haul Deidara to his feet, keeping him upright with an arm around his shoulders. “Is there a woman?” the Iwa bomber coughed, refusing to let himself be moved, and earning a glare from Obito for it. Naruto – predictably – rounds the tree before unnecessarily yelling back to them that he didn’t see any woman. “Anyone with blue hair?” presses Deidara; wincing when raising his voice made his ribs ache more.

“No, no one at all!”

“Why are you so worried about there being a woman with blue hair?” Obito questions blandly, apparently done with Deidara’s reluctance as he hooks his arms under the blond’s knees to carry him. If he had the breath, Deidara would’ve objected to being carried, but as it is he just – a bit carelessly – drops his head back, and closes his eyes to focus on making his lungs work. “ _Deidara_ ,” his name is more than enough of a warning, and the rogue sighs, managing to get out a faint mumble about Akatsuki. The way Obito tenses is really obvious to Deidara, and he looks up at the Jounin in a mixture of confusion and surprise.

Ten minutes later Deidara finds himself sprawled out on a hospital bed as Tsunade carefully mends his broken ribs – the Sannin had been astonished when she found out _how_ Deidara managed to do this to himself. Obito had disappeared the second Tsunade arrived, leaving three worried genin in his wake, which was not appreciated by either patient or doctor. “Will he be fine, Granny?” Naruto asks _again_ as he clings as much as he can to Deidara’s arm, worriedly brushing Deidara’s hair from the left side of his face.

Tsunade’s eye twitches – just like it has every time Naruto has called her ‘Granny’ – and she sighs heavily, breaking off from her explanation of what she was doing to her student standing next to her devotedly. “He’ll be fine, Naruto, for now why don’t you run along and find your mother?” Orochimaru says, cutting Tsunade off, and when he had slipped into the room Deidara had no idea, but he was apparently there now. Also, it seemed Naruto took offense at the request, clinging to his proclaimed older brother, and shaking his head stubbornly.

“Why don’t all you three head off, and find that slack off sensei you have?” cheerfully suggests – but it clearly was an order from the look on his face – Obito as he opens the door, from behind him Minato looks positively _furious_ , and Deidara – for one brief, terrifying moment – thinks that the Yondaime was mad at _him_.

The genin take one look at their leader before Naruto shoots to his feet. “Dad, don’t be mad at Deidara, it wasn’t his fault!” The adults all freeze in surprise, looking at each other before Minato reassures that he’s not mad at Deidara, and insists that the genin leave to find Kakashi. No one moves as the genin leave until Orochimaru flicks his hand, pushing away from the wall he was leaning on, and Minato looks at Deidara gravely.

“I want you to tell me the names and descriptions of everyone in the Akatsuki.”

Deidara would be lying through his teeth if he said that he had expected that, and he was sure the others could tell his surprise by the noise that escapes him. With the help of Tsunade, he gets into a sitting position, and looks the Yondaime over – completely unsure as to if he _should_ tell them. “According to what you told Obito, you saw a member of the Akatsuki inside the village gates,” Orochimaru says when the silence stretches. “In order to make sure one doesn’t sneak through again, we need any information you can provide about them.”

Sighing, he let his head fall back as he thought over the Sannin’s words. In the end, wasn’t it better? Akatsuki were all missing nin…

“Okay,” Deidara says. “I’ll tell you.”

 

It’s a kick to his leg that wakes him up, and Kisame blinks open his eyes to quirk a brow at an aggravated looking Konan. “Did ya see him?” he yawns sitting up, and scratching the back of his head as Konan sighs.

“No, I’ll try again tomorrow. Under a henge, I told them I was just passing through. And earlier as well, according to the chunin at the gate the majority of the shinobi who left had been blonds.” Said Konan, and Kisame had to hold back his own sigh. “It’s getting late, let’s find somewhere to set up camp.”

“Right.” The Kiri rogue grunts, getting up, and following Akatsuki’s second-in-command as she heads deeper into the forest. “Why are we even chasing after the kid anyway? We could always find a new-.”

Konan cuts him off with a rude sound that leaves him surprised, having thought only Deidara or Hidan would make a sound like that. “He knows too much, if he won’t come back then we can’t risk him warning the villages of our plans, so he must die.” Maybe Kisame was just hearing things, but… he was pretty sure he heard the woman’s voice break. Understandable considering how close she had been with the bomber – not nearly as close as she was to Pain, but almost.

A small part of him hoped that even if they did find Deidara, that they would just leave him be.

After all, the kid hadn’t actually been a criminal.

 

Obito grits his teeth a little as he watches Naruto all but drag Deidara off, and the Uchiha sighs as he looks back at Minato and Orochimaru. “Should I tell Jiraiya?” Orochimaru asked with a frighteningly blank expression that somehow goes even blanker when Minato shakes his head.

“No, he would be too emotionally invested if it actually is one of the orphans he trained in Ame.” The Yondaime mutters, dropping his head, and turning on his heel to head for the Hokage Tower. “Send Shikaku to me as soon as possible, tell him it’s urgent. Obito, find Rin and Kakashi, tell them to spare as much time as they can in helping watch for anyone from Akatsuki.” Orochimaru is gone the second he’s received his orders, disappearing in a graceful shunshin that has Obito staring for a few moments too long before he shakes himself.

“Right away, Minato-sensei.” He agrees, getting ready to leave as well before freezing as Minato calls over his shoulder.

“Don’t let Sasuke know about Itachi, and keep an extra eye on him as well. If you see Itachi run, from what we understand he’s not aware that he missed you in the massacre. I want to keep it that way.”

The messy-haired Jounin laughs, agreeing in a cheerful tone that doesn’t match how he’s feeling at all, and taking to the rooftops so it would be easier to track down his teammates. Something rubbed him the wrong way when Deidara had spoken of Itachi – and that other guy Hidan. The blond had flinched – _tensed_ – his tone of voice had turned angry, Obito might be brave enough to say even frightened, and refused to meet anyone’s gaze. Assumptions were dangerous – especially if proven to be wrong – but Obito was fairly certain that whatever Itachi had done would make him want to rip the younger Uchiha’s eyes right out of his skull.

Misuse of the Sharingan painted all Sharingan users in a bad light, one he wouldn’t care about if it were just himself, but it wasn’t just himself because both Sasuke and Kakashi had the Sharingan as well. Convincing Minato to consider letting Itachi off with a few years of prison had been hard enough, but Obito wasn’t entirely sure that was a possibility any longer.

How could his clan have gone from one of the major clans in Konoha, to being just a handful of people who bore the name?

 

“You broke your ribs?!”

Deidara flinched at Kushina’s shout, stubbornly not meeting her gaze as he continued to tie his hair up in his usual half-ponytail style. Ever since he’d gotten to Konoha he’s just stuck with a low ponytail, which was refreshing but also… too different. He liked having at least _some_ things stay the same.

“It as an accident!” Naruto exclaims from beside the older blond, slamming the kunai he had been cleaning down on the table. “We were training with Obito-.”

Maybe it was a bad sign that he could automatically tell when Naruto and Kushina were about to get into a shouting match, and therefore could unconsciously tune them out, but it was helpful when he was concentrating. Sasuke doesn’t even bother looking up, instead still trying to secretly stare at Naruto. “You let Deidara get hurt!” Kushina suddenly shrieks, and the blond rogue’s head snaps up just in time to see Obito _disappear_ in a whirl of chakra. The messy-haired Jounin reappears almost immediately a few paces away from Kushina, holding both his hands up in surrender, and yet not allowing the redheaded Uzumaki to hit him.

“It was an _accident_ , Kushina, I couldn’t get to him in time to help! Why are you still chasing after me?”

“You used Kamui to get away from me, that’s why!”

“Reflex, it was _reflex_! I’ve been on too many S-rank missions to _not_ use Kamui in the face of an attack!”

“Oi, kid, what are they talking about?” Deidara asked, cautiously lowering his hands away from his ponytail before poking Sasuke in the elbow. The baby Uchiha lifts his head to glare before sighing shortly.

“Kamui is Obito’s Mangekyō ability.” Says the genin blandly before they both have to duck in order to avoid getting hit by Obito as he leaps over them. Kushina stops a bare foot away from running into the table, glaring at Obito with furious blue eyes as the man looks around nervously. Deidara dares to risk a fleeting glance at Obito’s face before looking away again immediately at the sight of blood-red and midnight black. In all honesty it shouldn’t be such a surprise that Obito was an Uchiha – fair skin, dark hair and a black iris – but it was definitely jarring that he _hadn’t_ catch it beforehand.

The thing was Obito didn’t _act_ like Itachi or Sasuke. Obito was cheerful, ridiculous in an adorably cute way and levelheaded, the complete opposite of both of the other Uchiha. Suddenly it all made sense as to why Kakashi had a Sharingan – in his left eye – and Obito only had one – his right eye. What _didn’t_ make sense is how it happened, because Deidara doubted that Obito would willingly give someone his eye for no reason.

A hand suddenly drops on his head, and Deidara nearly grabs for the kunai Naruto had slammed onto the table earlier. Obito’s head is tilted to the side in concern as he studies Deidara’s face, brows furrowing slightly as he asks, “Are you okay, kid? You looked pretty zoned out.”

The blond rogue swats at the man’s hand, glaring furiously at him. “I’ll gut you if you ruin my hair, it’s hard to get it up like this!” he threatens, waving a fist at Obito before turning away with a scowl that lightens instantly as Naruto settles next to him. But that lasted only a handful of seconds before his ponytail came undone with little grace. Immediately Naruto and Sasuke begin to laugh, and Deidara huffily drops his head onto the table.

“Allow me?”

Vaguely confused, Deidara lifts his head to give Obito a dubious look, sitting up with a heavy sigh. “Knock yourself out, but pull my hair and you’re dead. I mean it too!” with that he picks up the brush Kushina had bought for him, holding it over his shoulder as Obito carefully works free the blond’s hair wrap. It’s… deceivingly relaxing as Obito’s skilled fingers work through his hair, blunt nails scraping his scalp repeatedly as the messy-haired Jounin seemingly tried to gather an even amount of hair. Deidara didn’t even realize he was zoning out until he hears a chuckle, and a little blearily he opens his eyes to blink at Rin.

“How long has he been playing with your hair like that, Deidara?” the brunette doctor asked as she sat down next to Kushina, idly curling her arm over Anko’s as the violet-haired woman leans over the back of the couch. The Iwa nin blinks again, and then a few more times for good measure before he shrugs – quickly averting his gaze as his cheeks begin to warm up. Obito seems to share Deidara’s embarrassment as he quickly – finally – puts the blond’s hair back into its ponytail.

Anko has a devious grin on her face that Deidara can just barely make out from the corner of his eye before she says, “Aw, look at the couple! Embarrassed to be caught in the midst of PDA.” and the blond rogue immediately glares at her.

“Very mature, grape-head!” he snarls, making Anko shriek furiously, launch herself over the couch, and he grabs for the kunai on the table legitimately this time. Naruto cries for them to stop, but Deidara doesn’t even waver – a habit of ending the fights he starts making him not actually register the plead – as he flips the kunai in his hold so the point is aimed directly at Anko.

As quickly as it started, it was over, and the bomber can’t help but stare in surprise at the hand gripping his wrist. Anko is snarling; her arms flailing as she tries to reach him even with the arm wrapped around her throat. “Hey now, there’s no need to be fighting. Rin, I thought you spoke to Anko about her jokes?” Obito’s voice rumbles through his chest – which Deidara finds himself to be pressed back against – and Kakashi makes a huffy noise as he drags Anko backwards.

“I _have_ ,” Rin sighs, looking tired as she lifts her head off the arm of the couch. “But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t occasionally make jokes like that.”

Obito mimics Rin’s sigh, and stands, pulling Deidara up with him as he looks at Sasuke. The messy-haired Jounin tells the boy to come along, walking for the door, and ignoring Deidara’s complaints about being dragged around. “Look, Uchiha, I’m not your damn doll!” he snaps, pulling stubbornly at his wrist, and stumbling when his foot catches on the lip of a rug. Obito shifts his hold immediately, catching Deidara by his waist before letting him go once the Iwa rogue was steady.

“Sorry. It’s one thing if I piss Anko off like that, but with you she would probably chase you down to finish the fight.” Apologized the older Uchiha, and Deidara narrows his eyes – rubbing his wrist as Obito continued. “I don’t trust her, so you should spend the night with Sasuke and I.”

Unfortunately his – very loud, and very vicious – objections are completely ignored, and Deidara wonders if anyone here really thinks that he could – and would – do some damage in a fight if he needed to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _SO_. I got carried away with this chapter, but I can't find a good place to cut it off to separate it? I guess I hope you enjoyed the long chapter! As ever, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!


	8. Chapter 8

Obito’s smile was cute.

When or how his brain started supplying that word anywhere near Obito’s name was beyond him, but honestly it was… better than the other words that would come to mind. It’s been about a week since Kushina had forgiven him for falling out of a tree, and breaking his ribs – so it’s been a little over a month and a half since the incident itself – and Deidara truly can’t think of a minute he’s had to himself outside of his apartment. Obito is _always_ around, grinning and laughing and making Deidara stop to wait for him every time he goes to help some old lady carry her groceries. He’s certain his expression is bordering on a combination of a scowl and a pout as Obito comes jogging back to the blond’s side, apologizing with a laugh.

Oh gods, the last thing to grate at him so much was Hidan being an ass, but this was just a _laugh_. “Why are you three all so different?” he blurts, cutting Obito off, and the man just blinks at him, his eye wide in surprise. Deidara determinedly looks away, and scoffs at himself, at his outburst and hell even at his thoughts.

Obito, as ever, begins to follow the bomber when he starts walking away. “Ehm, what do you mean?” he asks, sounding genuinely confused as he easily matches stride with Deidara before they both stop when two ANBU flicker into existence in front of them. The blond’s immediate reaction is to recoil, tripping over his own feet and landing on his ass with a yelp. Hound – as he had been told to call Kakashi when he was in ANBU uniform – glances over at his companion, head tilting to the side in obvious amusement.

“Fuck you too!” Deidara snarls, glaring furiously at the silver-haired ANBU before Obito heaves a sigh that sounded far too heavy for someone who always smiled. It’s entirely mortifying for the blond bomber when the messy-haired Jounin stoops down to _literally_ lift him off the ground and place him on his feet.

“Ino! Do me a favor, and watch Deidara until you run into Naruto, please!” called Obito and Deidara doesn’t even have enough time to blink before Ino was at his elbow, looking between them curiously.

“Why does he need to be watched?”

“Your father has made you _paranoid_ … He hasn’t done anything, Ino, but it’s another Orochimaru situation.”

The blonde makes a noise of understanding, her expression softening instantly, and Deidara has to resist the urge to twitch, instead looking at the Uchiha curiously. “What do you mean ‘another Orochimaru situation’?” he questions, but Obito just grins and salutes before disappearing with a flicker of chakra. The two ANBU look at each other before they vanish as well, and Deidara says, “What the fuck, hm?” when Ino just laughs. The genin tangles her hand into the extra fabric of his sleeve; the blond rogue sighs as he instinctively follows the pull – it was Naruto’s fault for it being instinct, damn it. Apparently satisfied, Ino seems to be entirely happy with hanging off his arm the way she was, cheerfully asking where he was originally going.

“Where’d you get this kimono? It’s nice!” Ino suddenly asks, running her hands up and down the satin of the sleeves.

“First off, I was going for one of the training fields, hm. Sitting around is making me restless.” Says Deidara as he looks down at his kimono. “And Kushina made me get it, told me to wear it to get used to it.”

The young blonde made a confused noise, looking up at him and asking, “You could ruin it by training with it on, so why are you wearing it still?”

Making a rude sound, Deidara sticks his tongue out at her playfully before cursing as he bumps into a woman. “Sorry!” he apologizes, quirking a brow when the woman’s eyes widen, but he doesn’t have the chance to really question it with the way Ino wasn’t relenting on pulling him along. “I have a shirt on underneath, hm, I was going to take it off to avoid ruining it, y’know.”

Grinning and giggling, Ino looks up at him to tease, “You picked up Naruto and Kushina’s ‘y’know’!” and Deidara has never heard such an unfair observation, so he has no problems telling her exactly that even though it just makes her laugh more as she leads him towards the training grounds.

 

Deidara and Ino are joined at the training grounds by the rest of Ino’s team, Naruto and his team as well as the team he’s come to know to be called Team Eight. It’s been a few hours and many spars, so Deidara feels no shame in the sighing groan he lets out as he sprawls underneath the lone tree. He wasn’t as restless anymore, but having to hold back enough to not hurt the genin had been a little strenuous. There’s a cackle, and Deidara goes to sit up only to be pushed back down as Naruto – the little _shit_ – drops on top of the bomber, who wheezes as the force of forty kilograms efficiently pushes the air out of his lungs. “Brat,” the rogue croaks, scuffing the younger blond over the head as a grin splits his lips while Sasuke and Sakura sit nearby. “Better watch it, gonna end up killing me if you keep doing that, hm.”

Huffing, Naruto looks at him with a scowl that doesn’t match up with his laughter. “Nuh-uh, it won’t kill you! Besides, you _can’t_ die, you have to watch me win the Chunin Exams!” he gets his hands on either side of Deidara’s head, propping himself up and staring down at the Iwa nin even as he insists this. Deidara can’t help but blink, frowning in worry at the statement because he remembers going through the Chunin Exams.

It was a dangerous event for sure, something no one should go through with how little experience these nine had. He was entirely certain that none of these kids were ready for the Exams, but it wasn’t exactly his place to say. “We’ll all pass them!” as though he could hear Deidara’s thoughts, Kiba grins as he walks over with Shino and Hinata behind him, apparently done with their spar. The rogue grunts, half wants to say he didn’t doubt them, but he doesn’t get the chance as Kiba speaks again. “Oi, Naruto, have you said anything about the festival?”

Curious – and definitely wary – the older blond looks at Naruto, quirking a brown and asking, “Festival?” to get an entirely unhelpful wide grin in response as Naruto nods eagerly.

“Yeah, there’s a festival in a nearby village! We want to go. Will you take us, Deidara?”

Despite the force it takes, Deidara sits up to eye the pint-sized personification of sunlight in his lap before snorting and rolling his eyes. “Someone else told you no, and that’s why you’re asking me,” he tries to blow his bangs from his face, knowing it’ll fail even as he does it. “What reason is there for me to piss off whoever that was, hm?”

Tucking Deidara’s bangs back behind his ear, Naruto’s lip juts out dangerously as he pouts, whining a little. “ _Please_ , Deidara? It was just Kakashi-sensei who said no, but we’ve been training nonstop, so we deserve a break, y’know! Don’t you agree?” The look Naruto gives him makes it painfully obvious that he already knew Deidara was going to agree. Groaning, Deidara pinches the bridge of his nose as he tries to find some way out of this, but he knows these brats by now. Either he can agree, go with them to make sure they’re safe, or he can disagree, not go and get gutted alive by Kushina and Minato for letting genin leave the village by themselves.

A trap. That’s what this entire situation was, it was a trap, and it was so obvious they all knew that as well as he did. He was willing to bet that it was Shikamaru who chose him out to ask once they’d gotten a ‘no’ from Kakashi. The brats planned it all, and he would eat his own foot if they hadn’t. He groans, dropping his head back. “ _Fine_ ,” he relents; making a face and lifts his head to shake it in exasperation. “I’ll take you, hm, but how the fuck are you going to get Minato to _agree_?”

The genin all share a glance, absolutely none of them looking repentant as Naruto turns back to him, saying, “We told him Pervy Sage was going to meet us on the way.” Deidara narrows his eyes, giving them an incredulous look before snorting. Admittedly it wasn’t hard to see that Deidara despised Jiraiya and his penchant for spying on the woman’s section at the hot springs, but it was a good plan. From what he could tell Kushina and Orochimaru were the only people Minato trusted more than Jiraiya, so it was a great way to get what they wanted.

“He won’t actually be joining us, will he, hm?” he asked.

It wasn’t surprising at for Naruto to say that the toad sage wasn’t even aware that they used him as an excuse. “The festival is in two days,” Ino comments as she sits next to Sakura, smiling at Deidara with picture perfect innocence – Deidara’s come to realize that she’s good at façades. “We could leave today and have time to find a hotel at the village!”

Deidara sighs, knowing that was the best idea, and he drops his head back again. “I think we need to shower and eat first, hm.” He says, groaning in pain when Naruto knees him in the stomach while trying to get off his lap. Everyone begins to immediately laugh when the bomber lets himself fall backwards with as much drama he can muster. Crying his name loudly and apologizing, Naruto shakes Deidara even as the rogue continues to play dead.

 

Kisame is bored out of his mind, lounging back against a tree and staring up through the leafs to the sky above when the sound of cloth catching on tree bark makes him look down. Konan is just stepping into their makeshift camp, her henge just barely falling away as she settles on a stump, not saying a word. Her expression is tired, wary in a way that says she found _something_ , but clearly wasn’t happy about it. In a place like Konoha, who knows what the exact reason was. “Well?” the Kiri rogue asked when the silence stretched about five minutes too long, and he hardly cares about the slight snap in his words even as Konan sighs.

Amber eyes lift to hold his gaze, blank and guarded as Konan says, “Deidara is within Konoha’s walls. But so far I’ve only seen him once without a Jounin with an eye patch being with him. He’s being guarded, and anyone who enters the village is checked, so I assume he gave away some type of information.”

This gets the shark-like ninja to frown, growling slightly before shaking his head. “Do you think-?”

“That it was enough to kill him for? I don’t know, I think Nagato should decide that.” She cuts Kisame off, digging into her cloak and pulling out a soldier pill that she immediately pops into her mouth. “We’ll be moving closer to the gates in an hour, that way if he leaves we will be aware of it.”

Kisame shakes his head slightly, rubbing at his eyes before he mutters his understanding, settling back into the tree more. What information could Deidara have given away about Akatsuki that would make Konoha check everyone who enters the village?

 

To his surprise, it wasn’t as nearly as taxing as he would have assumed traveling with Konoha’s nine youngest genin would be. If anything, it’s a good learning experience and absolutely entertaining. Hinata, Shino and Shikamaru had so far kept to themselves the entire time, never really joining the conversation – though Hinata didn’t seem too interested in moving from her spot at Deidara’s right elbow. The only three Deidara really had to keep an eye on had to be Naruto, Kiba (obviously Akamaru too, but Kiba hadn’t really set him down at all so far) and Ino since the three of them kept getting distracted or would run off. Thankfully Sakura seemed to be willing to help round the three up whenever Deidara decided they had wandered off too far. “Hey, isn’t Kakashi-sensei’s birthday soon?” Sakura asked out of nowhere, sounding thoughtful from her spot between Naruto and Sasuke.

Intrigued, the rogue calls Kiba back before looking at the pink-haired genin as she in turn calls for Ino. Sasuke makes a sound of reluctant interest, saying, “I think it’s in a week?” before his head snaps in Naruto’s direction when the young blond cheers, throwing his hands in the air with an eager shout of ‘Let’s get him a present!’.

From his side, Hinata timidly points out that Shikamaru and Ino would be having birthdays soon as well, and Deidara can’t help the soft chuckle and smile that forms on his lips as he looks at the road again. Compared to the mountains and endless surplus of stone, the forest was rather pretty in his opinion. All bright greens, warm browns and pleasant little splashes of color wherever flowers have bloomed. He also liked the cheerful chirps of the birds, the soft whispers of leafs moving in the light breeze and the little rustles of wildlife. Earth country had been… lonely if you weren’t in a village, but Fire country seemed much more homey.

Naruto rounds on him eagerly after about an hour, and Deidara is nearly toppled over by the way the younger blond leaps and latches onto his left arm like a damned leech. He was surprised to realize that he felt fond rather than annoyed now whenever Naruto clung to him. “Deidara, Deidara!” he shouts in the bomber’s ear, squeezing his arm tightly. “When’s _your_ birthday?”

The last time someone asked about his birthday… was years ago. As in back when he had still been a genin himself. It’s probably pathetic that Deidara actually has to _think_ about when his birthday was. Clicking his tongue as he thought, he notices that Naruto starts looking worried the longer the silence stretches while the other genin look at each other dubiously. “You’re the first person to ask about my birthday in years, hm.” Deidara confides when he finally remembers, shaking his arm just enough for Naruto to get the hint and jump down. “It’s in May, just a few days after Choji’s if I heard right, hm.” Amusement makes him snort softly when he notices how Shino and even Shikamaru looks interested in the revealed information.

Naruto nods in clear satisfaction, pulling hard on Deidara’s arm quickly insisting that they should pick up the pace. “Y’know, when we get home we can tell Mom! That way we can celebrate your birthday, Deidara!” the jumpsuit-clad genin declares, making Deidara laugh and shake his head in amusement. A shadow – abnormal compared to the shadows from the trees – makes Deidara look up and the Iwa rogue tries his best to hide the way his delight dies when he looks up to see an abnormal looking bird flying nearly right above them, high in the sky. Worry makes his stomach turn, and he hopes faintly that he’s just being paranoid, but that bird did not look like it belonged in this area.

In the end, he decides it’s probably better to not say anything that could worry the genin, so he drags his gaze downwards to instead settle on Naruto’s grinning face. “My birthday won’t be until months, hm, so don’t worry about it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm sure a lot of you have noticed that it should end on chapter 12. I have a reason for that, so trust me on this! Also the chapter is more... descriptive? I hope you guys like it lol! Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter, and, as ever, thanks for reading!
> 
> Oh! And I've finally decided on a rating and warnings! Can't believe it took me that long, yeesh! Plus someone recommended this on blackkat's Tumblr, and I'm crying because I'm positive my writing doesn't deserve something like that! Thank you to whoever rec'd it!

**Author's Note:**

> Don't be surprised if this gets revised... a lot... I'm not as confident with this one as I am with 'A Moon Made of Longing'  
> Oh well. Hope you enjoyed..? Was it even enjoyable? I dunno I like the idea I want to do it justice!


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